Deep Dish Blueberry Maple French Toast

This dish looks very much like a bread pudding and is best prepared the night before.

Ingredients:

Have at room temperature:

4 oz cream cheese

2 Tablespoons butter

3 Tablespoons maple syrup or maple butter

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

8 slices of Italian bread, about ½ inch thick (I use the middle of the loaf)

1 cup blueberries

200ml light cream

4 eggs

2 tablespoons maple syrup

Pinch of salt

Method:

Grease a stoneware baking dish with butter.

In a medium bowl, blend together cream cheese, butter and maple syrup until they are completely combined and creamy like a frosting. Add cinnamon and mix well.

Lay out the slices of bread on your workspace and divide the cream cheese among four pieces. Spread it around evenly and top with the four remaining slices of bread.

HereÂs where it gets a little messy. Using a sharp serrated knife, cut the sandwiches into three ÂfingersÂ, and each one of those fingers into three. You should have roughly nine bite-sized chunks per sandwich. DonÂt worry if everything seems to squish out.

Transfer all the bread to the buttered baking dish and spread out evenly. Top with blueberries, tucking them in here and there, and pressing them down between the cubes of bread.

Using the same bowl as your former cream cheese mixture, crack the eggs and beat slightly. Add cream, maple syrup and salt; mix well.

Pour batter over bread. Using a well-washed hand, place your palm in the center of the dish and gently press all the bread down until the egg mixture seeps up through the cracks. (And you thought it was messy before. Hah!)

Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, preheat oven to 350F.

Cook for 35-45 minutes until puffy and golden. Cover with foil if bread is browning before eggs are set.

Serve warm with more maple syrup and fresh blueberries.